A Creational Theology

Over the last couple years I have become convinced that we must understand God's activity in creational terms and ways. God as Creator is the lens through which we see all of God's activity, including redemption.

This is a growing trend in Old Testament studies, that creation, in the words of Walter Brueggemann, is the new "horizon of biblical faith." His article "The Loss and Recovery of Creation in Old Testament Theology" can be read by clicking on the link provided on the right side of the blog, and is helpful in that it traces the main trajectory of Old Testament studies over the last century with respect to creation theology.

What I am going to do is post several summaries of lessons I taught in a series I recently finished entitled Reclaiming Creation. I taught this at our church and the summaries will flesh out the what and the why of understanding creation as the horizon of biblical faith. The series was a great opportunity to read, study, and "try on" many of the ideas presented in Terence Fretheim's book, God and World in the Old Testament: A Relational Theology of Creation. Fretheim's book was provocative and mind-stretching for me, and he has become one of my very favorite theologians to read.

While I am insistent that our theology be thoroughly creational, it must also be eschatological--it must have in mind the intended goal God has for the entire cosmos. An eschatological orientation, will, in the words of Jurgen Moltmann, "transform and revolutionize" our present lives, goals, and theological renderings.

As a footnote, I must add that while creation is the broad lens through which we see God at work in the world, there are two more motifs which must be employed in order to articulate a more fully-orbed forward-looking or eschatological view of creation. Those motifs are Kingdom and Community. Creation is our broadest category, the starting point and the goal (new creation)of God's work, the Kingdom motif provides us with the means of God's creational activity, and the Community motif is the resulting effect of God's creation activity.

At a later date I will be fleshing out the two motifs just named, but for now I want to concentrate on the motif of Creation by examining the rich creation theology of Israel.